19 February 2019

A team of Japanese researchers will carry out an unprecedented trial using human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) to treat spinal cord injuries, the specialists said on Monday.

The team at Tokyo’s Keio University has received government approval for the trial — which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body — to treat patients with serious spinal cord injuries.

iPS: are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from adult normal cells. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka’s lab in Kyoto, Japan, who showed in 2006 that the introduction of four specific genes encoding transcription factors (Oct4 (Pou5f1), Sox2, cMyc, and Klf4) could convert adult cells into pluripotent stem cells. He was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize along with Sir John Gurdon "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent."

Researchers, including those from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, found that improving mitophagy — the cleaning system of the brain cells — nearly removed the symptoms of Alzheimer’s in the animals.
Mitophagy is the selective degradation of mitochondria by autophagy. It often occurs to defective mitochondria following damage or stress.